Vic Tafur

Updated 2:40 am, Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Raven's Ray Lewis, 52 talks to reporters during Media Day at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome the site of this year's Superbowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans, La. on Tues. Jan. 29, 2013.
(Michael Macor, The Chronicle)

The Ravens' linebacker was asked at Super Bowl XLVII media day about a Sports Illustrated report that he possibly took a banned substance to speed his recovery from a torn triceps this season.

Sports Illustrated wrote that Sports With Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) might have provided Lewis with deer-antler velvet extract spray after his triceps injury this year. That spray includes IGF-1, a hormone that stimulates muscle growth that is banned by the NFL.

Lewis was referring to a 2011 report in which former Ravens assistant Hue Jackson, then the Raiders' head coach, was told by the NFL to cut ties with the company. Ross told ThePostGame.com in 2011 that he gave Jackson free products that the coach gave to players, including Lewis.

Ross told the Baltimore Sun Tuesday that he was in touch with Lewis via text to set up a healing protocol for his torn triceps immediately after the Cowboys game on Oct. 14.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday that Lewis has passed every drug test in his career.

"There's never been a question if I've ever even thought of using anything," Lewis said. "So to even entertain stupidity like that, tell him to try to get his story off somebody else."

Jackson was Lewis' original connection to the company.

"Nobody helped me out with the rehab," Lewis told Sports Illustrated. "I've been doing SWATS for a couple of years through Hue Jackson, that's it. That's my only connection to them."

The last time Lewis was at a Super Bowl, following the 2000 season, questions swirled about his involvement in the murders of two men after a Super Bowl party in Atlanta the previous year. Murder charges were dropped against Lewis, who testified against his co-defendants and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

He was also asked about that Tuesday, which he liked less than the deer-antler spray questions.

"If you take a 13-year break on anything, as hard as it is about the things you want me to speak about, I just believe, honestly, that this is not the appropriate time for that," Lewis said. "Because the sympathy I have for that family or what me and my family have endured because of all of that, nobody here is really qualified to ask those questions.

"I live with it every day of my life, and I'd rather not speak of that today."